Phytotaxa 166 (4): 297–300
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Copyright © 2014 Magnolia Press
ISSN 1179-3155 (print edition)
Correspondence
PHYTOTAXA
ISSN 1179-3163 (online edition)
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.166.4.6
Validation of the name Centaurea ×forsythiana Levier (Asteraceae)
ROSSELLA FILIGHEDDU 1 , EMMANUELE FARRIS 1* , STEFANIA PISANU 1 , MALVINA URBANI 1 &
ALFONSO SUSANNA2
1
Dipartimento di Scienze della Natura e del Territorio, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Via Piandanna, 4, 07100 Sassari, Italy;
e-mail: filighed@uniss.it; emfa@uniss.it; pisanus@uniss.it; urbani@uniss.it
2
Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB-CSIC-ICUB), Pg. del Migdia s/n, 08038 Barcelona, Spain; e-mail: asusanna@ibb.csic.es
*corresponding author
Two individuals morphologically intermediate between Centaurea horrida Badarò (1824: 367) and C. filiformis
Viviani (1825: 6) were collected by Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major on 26 May 1885 at Tavolara Islet, Italy (FI!):
these samples were published by Fiori (1904) and later reported in Arrigoni (1972) as two different hybrids: “C.
superfiliformis × horrida Levier” and “C. superhorrida × filiformis Levier”. As annotated on the label by Emile
Levier, the material deposited in FI shows that the morphology of the two hybrids is very different and only the one
named by Fiori as “C. superfiliformis × horrida Levier” was labelled as C. forsythiana Levier (Fig. 1). This sample
is morphologically similar to the individuals of a hybrid population we discovered in the same site in the Tavolara
Islet (Timone), on limestone, as reported by Fiori (1904). The hybrid named “C. superhorrida × filiformis Levier”
by Fiori (1904) was collected by Forsyth Major in a different site (Bocchetta) on granite, and has never been
recollected afterwards. For the matter of this note, this is not a problem since, according to Article H.4.1 of the
International Code of Nomenclature (McNeill et al. 2012), all the hybrid variants originated from the same parental
species, as far as considered nothotaxa (Art. H.3.1), should bear the same name.
The name C. forsythiana was not validly published (Art. 36.1(c)) because it was merely cited as a synonym in
Fiori (1904). But subsequently, it was widely used by Italian botanists to define this nothotaxon at the species level
(Beguinot & Vaccari 1927, Arrigoni 1972, Bacchetta et al. 2012, etc.). In this note we start from the Levier’s name
(handwritten on the label of the type material), we give a diagnosis and indicate the holotype to validate the name
C. forsythiana.
Béguinot & Vaccari (1927) quoted this taxon simply citing the nomenclatural treatment of Fiori (1904), but
surprisingly they did not list any name referred to the hybrid taxon in the floristic annex at the end of their paper,
whereas they listed the names of the two parental species. They also cited the specimen no. 388 that was distributed
in the Flora Italica Exsiccata (Fiori et al. 1906), but that sample reported is C. filiformis, without any mention of the
hybrid taxon. However, the name is actually in use, because it was accepted (though not validly published) in a
recent list of Sardinian endemic plants (Bacchetta et al. 2012). This taxon has a scientific interest because it is one
of the few examples of incipient homoploid hybrid speciation between two narrow endemic species: the parental
species are exclusive of Sardinia, C. horrida growing only in the north-western part of the island and C. filiformis
in the central-eastern part, and overlapping only at the Tavolara island (Pisanu et al. 2011, Mameli et al., in press).
Centaurea ×forsythiana Levier ex Filigh., Farris, Pisanu & Urbani, nothosp. nov.
The new hybrid differs from Centaurea horrida in being unarmed and by its erect, not pulvinate habit; it also differs from C.
filiformis in the ovoid-oblong or cylindrical capitula, very similar to those of C. horrida.
Type:—ITALY. Olbia-Tempio: «239. Centaurea forsythiana Levier, ab Ascherson prolem hybridum inter C. horridam et C.
filiformis suspicatus, in insulae Tavolarae solo calcareo “al Timone”», 26 May 1885, Forsyth Major s.n. (holotype FI!).
(Fig. 1)
Accepted by Alexander Sennikov: 30 Mar. 2014; published: 30 Apr. 2014
297
FIGURE 2. Plant of Centaurea ×forsythiana Levier in the wild.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, LR 7/2007–PO Sardegna FSE 2007–2013,
with the grant no. CRP2_474 for all authors and no. CRP3_188 for SP. We thank the Protected Marine Area of
Tavolara–Punta Coda Cavallo for the technical aid received. The Marina Militare Italiana is acknowledged for the
authorisation to enter the areas it manages in the Tavolara island. Chiara Nepi (Herbarium FI) kindly provided us
with a photograph of the type.
References
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VALIDATION OF THE NAME CENTAUREA ×FORSYTHIANA LEVIER
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